Tag: acquisition

There are indications that Access Bank Group is close to acquiring Diamond Bank Plc, The PUNCH has learnt.

A senior official of Access Bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media on the deal, told our correspondent on Sunday that the banks were still in acquisition talks, which had not yet been finalised.

“I can confirm that there is an acquisition process in progress but we need to wait for the outcome if it is eventually concluded,” he stated.

When contacted, The Director, Corporate Communications, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Isaac Okorafor, said, “We are aware that there have been meetings but we are yet to receive any formal communication from the parties in that respect.”

Recently, Diamond Bank received the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria, following its application, to operate as a national bank with immediate effect.

This was, however, subject to the conclusion of the sale of Diamond Bank UK- DB UK Plc.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Uzoma Dozie, with this approval, the bank will cease to operate as an international bank.

He said the move was part of Diamond Bank’s strategy to focus on Nigeria’s significant opportunities.

“The re-licensing as a national bank supports Diamond’s objective of streamlining its operations to focus resources on the significant opportunities in the Nigerian retail banking market, and the economy as a whole,” he stated.

He added that the move followed Diamond’s decision to sell its international operations, which included the disposal of its West African subsidiary in 2017 and Diamond Bank UK, the sale of which is currently in its final stage.

A report by The Cable said the bank recorded its worst month on record in November with share plunging to 0.61k per unit on November 30, 2018.

Diamond Bank Q3 2018 report had shown that the bank was under some financial stress with profit after tax falling from N3.9bn in 2017 to N1.6bn.

This impacted the bank’s earnings per share, which also dropped sharply from N17 in 2017 to N7 in 2018.

As of Wednesday, the bank had a share price of 0.95 per unit and a market cap of N22bn.

Copyright PUNCH. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.

Punch Games

Affelka S.A., the majority shareholder of Seven-Up Bottling Company Plc, who is proposing to acquire all the outstanding and issued shares of SBC that are not currently owned by Affelka, has advised the company that the scheme consideration has been revised upwards to N125 per share.

7-UP disclosed this on Wednesday in a notice to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The proposed scheme consideration represents a 22.6 per cent premium to the last traded share price of the company on January 9, 2018; and a 27.6 per cent premium to the price on August 10, 2017, which was the last business day prior to the date the initial proposal was received from Affelka.

The revised scheme consideration would be voted on at the court-ordered meeting which is scheduled for January 11, 2018, the notice explained.

On November 30, 2017, 7-UP had received an offer from its majority shareholder, Affelka, to buy out minorities for N19.33bn ($60m), in a takeover deal aimed at restructuring the struggling company.

Privately-held Affelka, the investment firm of the Lebanese El-Khalil family, did offer to acquire 171.5 million shares from minorities at N112.70 per share, an 18 per cent premium to the hen share price of N95.50.

It already owns 73.2 per cent of the bottler, set up 57 years ago, and has the licence to bottle PepsiCo’s Pepsi and other products in Nigeria.

The soft drinks bottling industry has been hit by slow demand arising from weak economic growth in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, which has just emerged from a recession and a currency crisis which stifled raw material imports.

“As of now we have received an offer from the majority shareholder of the company. It’s a financial restructuring,” Seven-Up Vice Chairman, Sunil Sawhney, said then.

He said the company had been making losses for some time and that the deal was aimed at restructuring the bottler, which distributes PepsiCo’s 7up, Pepsi and Mirinda-branded drinks.

Shares in the soft drinks maker, which opened for trade at N92.50, rose by five per cent on the news, valuing the company at N59.6bn ($186.25m).

The 7-UP takeover deal came six years after main rival Coca-Cola delisted its local bottling unit in a buy out deal worth $136m, to expand the business and fend off competition.

Sawhney, who joined the company in a management change this year, said delisting 7-UP from the stock exchange after the takeover would be “logical”. The takeover is subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

Earlier, 7-UP said its board had received an offer from Affelka to acquire all outstanding shares that it does not currently own.

Copyright PUNCH.All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.

Punch Games

Top management employees at the MTN Group head office in Johannesburg, South Africa, have hinted that the company will take a stand by the end of June on its plans to acquire MultiChoice Africa.

This is coming two years after MTN acquired a N34bn licence to provide digital pay television broadcasting services in Nigeria, and spent N25bn extra to get the service running in May 2016.

The National Broadcasting Commission had said in September 2015 that it gave MTN Nigeria part of the country’s 700MHz broadcasting spectrum solely for the purpose.

Talks between MTN and MultiChoice have been ongoing since the last quarter of 2016, The PUNCH reliably gathered from two of the management employees on Tuesday.

“Should we (the MTN Group) finally come to agree to terms with MultiChoice, which is expected to happen before June ending, then the pronouncement will be made in July,” one of them said.

The source added, “Well, the whole gambit depends on the outcome we get from MultiChoice Nigeria, which is the cash cow for the pay television company.

“MultiChoice realises that in whatever acquisition plan it wants to get into, the Nigerian market must be strongly considered, given its peculiarities and the dynamics from rival companies.”

The source, however, added, “But above all, MTN is particularly bothered that the country (Nigeria) where it has its highest number of telecommunications subscribers will not be able to meet the June 2017 deadline for digital migration, despite having failed to meet the earlier deadline of June 2015. So, it is of the conviction that the acquisition will only present a stronger frontier to give Nigerians the opportunity to watch TV, even on their smartphones, after June 2017.

“Other countries in Africa that will be affected by the digital migration deadline will also benefit from the opportunities inherent.”

Copyright PUNCH.
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.